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I've heard it several times before, but after watching Forbidden History - The Secrets of the Alchemists the question again came to mind. Then I found this paper which mentions the First World Conference on Urine Therapy...

This Virgin and blessed Water the Philosophers have named in their Books with many thousand names; they call it Heaven, Celestial Water, Celestial Rain, the dew of Heaven, May-dew, Water of Paradise, parting Water, Aqua Regis, a corrosive Aquafort, sharp Vinegar, Brandy, Quintessence of Wine, growthful green Juice, a growing Mercury, a viridescent Water, and Leo Viridis, Quick-Silver, Menstruum, Blood, Urine, Horse-piss, Milk, and Virgins Milk, white Arsenick, Silver, Lune, and juice of Lune, a Woman, Feminine Seed, a sulphureous vapouring Water and Smoke, a fiery burning Spirit, a deadly piercing Poison, and Basilisk that killeth all, a venomous Worm, a venomous Serpent, a Dragon, a Scorpion devouring his Children, a hellish Fire of Horse-dung, a sharp Salt, and Salt-Armoniack, a common Salt, sharp Soap, Lye, a viscous Oyl, Ostrich’s Stomach which doth devour and concoct all, an Eagle, Vulture, Bird of Hermes, a Vessel and Seal of Hermes, a melting and calcining Furnace, and innumerable other names of Beasts, Birds, Herbs, Waters, Juices, Milk, Bloods, &c. And they write figuratively in their Books of this Water, to be made of such things, whereas all the unwise, which sought it in such like things, have not found the true desired Water. Know therefore, my dear Son, that it is only made of Mercury vive, and of no other heterogeneous thing in the World; and that the Philosophers therefore gave it so many Names, that it might not be known to the unwise.

Mercury vive or living silver, quicksilver, or just plain water whereas chemical mercury was referred to as Argent-vive. Fire(hot, dry) became brimstone, and water(cold, moist) became mercury... according to From Alchemy to Chemistry by John Read

I've also heard of numerous arguments that have claimed there are numerous religious and Biblical references to 'urine therapy'.

Drinking one's morning urine ('amaroli') was an ancient yoga practice designed to promote meditation. The ancient Hindu and yoga texts that mention auto-urine drinking, require it be done before sunrise and that only the mid-stream sample be used.[37] The pineal hormone melatonin and its conjugated esters are present in morning urine in significant quantities, the pineal gland secreting melatonin maximally at about 2 am, this secretion being shut off by the eyes' exposure to bright sunlight.[37] Melatonin, when ingested or given intravenously, amongst other effects, provokes tranquility and heightened visualisation.[37] There are high concentrations of melatonin in the first morning urine, but not in a physiologically active form.[37] Mills and Faunce at Newcastle University Australia in 1991 developed the hypothesis that ingestion of morning urine into low pH gastric acid would cause deconjugation of its esters back to the active form of melatonin. This, they suggested, might restore plasma night-time melatonin levels. Thus, they argued, oral pre-dawn consumption of auto-exogenous melatonin, by either re-setting of the sleep-wake cycle or enhancement of the physiological prerequisites for meditation (decreased body awareness (i.e. analgesia) and claimed slowed brain wave activity, as well as heightened visualization ability), may be the mechanism behind the alleged benefits ascribed to 'amaroli' or auto-urine drinking by ancient texts of the yogic religion.[37] Difficulties in constructing a double-blind clinical trial make it hard to test this to any requisite evidence-based standard.

I appreciate that this post might not be a joke; but can the OP make an argument for why he things urine is the fountain of youth / philosopher's stone / blah, blah, blah? It's going to be tricky to argue against it when we don't know the reasons for it.

It depends on if you're talking about internal or external alchemy. When it comes to external alchemy, I'm being totally serious. They thought that they could refine a bunch of metals in a crucible to create a golden pill that would bestow actual physical immortality. Kings and Emperors and Alchemists were transfixed with this idea for about... a 500 year stretch of history. And yes, many did use lead and mercury as active ingredients. Quite ironically, they ended up poisoning themselves to death. Silly, right? Well, those alchemists weren't total dupes. They also invented many useful things like paper and gunpowder in their efforts. Modern chemistry would have a stunted growth were it not for those kooky old alchemists.

I have to admit, the most interesting Alchemist I've discovered to date has been the Fullmetal Alchemist.

Anime aside, have a look at alchemical symbols. Here we see sulfur or brimstone as "omnipresent spirit of life", elemental fire - in Deuteronomy 4:24 and Hebrews 12:29 it is stated "god is a consuming fire". Mercury is "fluid connection between the High and the Low" with a bull-like symbol(also used in astrology) and we know bull urine is highly prized, as we - as higher apes - do not produce Allantoin, a powerful healing component of most mammalian urine. Instead we apes excrete uric acid a powerful antioxidant.

Indeed alchemists were the chemists of their day, and for them I am grateful as chemistry is one of my many interests. Alchemy itself... not so much besides for historic 'entertainment value'. And if only for such reason... I think I'll give The Secret of the Golden Flower a read, thanks for the link, mate.

This reminds me of a time I suggested colloidal silver(just one of many suggestions from the book Prescription for Nutritional Healing) to a female with chronic yeast infections... and for that one suggestion alone I received loads of hate about how 'dangerous' it is, like turning people blue... a mostly superficial side-effect which requires massive doses of colloidal silver over very prolonged periods. Yet alchemically, silver has been suggested as 'synonymous' with mercury/quicksilver, particularly colloidal silver, which even if it does turn someone blue is potentially beneficial to fight numerous types of infections, especially viral infections - silver(like many metals) being a powerful anti-microbial. Of course, many metals, especially heavy metals, are generally toxic to humans. Luckily, she did take some of the advice(they did manage to scare her enough to avoid colloidal silver) and her problems cleared up.

This would best be asked in a science sub, but don't tell them I sent you.

Urine is waste. It's a waste to look for a literal fountain of your or philosopher's stone or elixir of life. Water of life is already found. The latin aqua vitae, used to describe distilled spirits. One does not distill urine, though many jokes have been made about particular brands of beer being carbonated urine. We are trying to avoid humor, so I'll piss off.

I know it's been tried for health at various points in history. Probably from watching shows like QI and Horrible Histories on youtube. but since the body expels it as a poison, and losing the ability to pee poisons the body, I'm siding with my kidneys on this one- once it's out, it stays out.

Urine is not a poison. Urine is roughly 95% water and the rest is comprised of a wide-range of vital nutrients taken directly from your blood, with dashes of antibodies and hormones.

Yea, next time you need a blood transfusion better to just bleed out. Why bother eating or drinking anything while you're at it? You realize crops are mostly just grown with manure and piss, right?

It's also possible to reactive 'sleep chemicals'(won't bore you with their scientific names) and induce states of euphoria and even 'waking dreams'(because hallucination is hard to pronounce for you, I'm sure).

If you asked a person on the street what uric acid is, he or she would invariably answer that it's a toxic body waste. Not so, say medical researchers at the University of California at Berkeley who in 1982 reported they had discovered that "uric acid destroys body-damaging, cancer-causing free radicals and is considered to be one of the physiological factors that enable human beings to live so much longer than other mammals."

Piss is around 2.5% UREA. What's UREA? Who cares?! It's FDA approved, bitch! Add a little cinnamon and you got the Pinkman special.

Now on a more serious note, just imagine Jesus performing 'miracles' by getting people to drink piss.

Also, logically, that's some terrible reasoning to conflate 'losing the ability to pee' with 'drinking pee' therefore both must 'poison me'. Really. Piss. Poor. Logic. What an equally terrible example? Righty-o! Losing the ability to breathe poisons the body. Once you exhale, let the air stay out. Good luck with that, guy.

I like asking questions I already know the answer to. You know, like a teacher, it'd be rather pointless to present you my answer lest you just confirm my bias. Or ignorantly lambaste me - wait! you did that anyway.

Why do I like asking questions about subjects that I've already researched extensively? It's an excellent way to judge responses, of course.